Prep Journal: Young stars playing big roles for Groton

For most teams, having too much youth on a
roster can be a problem. But for Groton hockey, young stars are an
asset.

The Zebras receive
much of their production from their younger players -- three
of the team’s top four
scorers are sophomores. Junior
Ace Cowans and sophomore Michael Brownare at the head
of the pack.

Cowans, a Beverley, Mass. native, leads the team in
scoring and has one of the best points-per-game ratios in the
region with 30 points (12 goals,
18 assists) in 12 games. Brown is
not far behind, ranking second on
the team in scoring with 22 points
(11 goals, 11 assists) in
12 games.

The
pair share an ability to dominate the game offensively, but
aside from that scoring touch, Cowans and Brown
are two very different players.

Cowans is somewhat undersized for 1996 birth-year
player, standing at 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds. What he lacks
in size, he makes up for in speed, footwork and
stickhandling.

“He can
shoot very quickly and moves laterally as well as anyone I’ve
seen at this age level,” said Groton coach Bill Riley.
“He’s had several wrap-around goals because when the
puck is loose down there and he can forecheck well,
he can quickly shift one way and go the other and surprise the
goalie. He’s very good around the net in that sense because
he can avoid checks, and I think the way he thinks the game and the
cerebral approach to the game is his greatest
attribute.”

The junior
factored into every goal in Groton’s 5-4 win over Proctor on
Wednesday. Cowans recorded a natural hat trick with three
goals in the second period and added assists on the Zebra’s
lone first and third period goals. The hat trick
was Cowans’ second of the season.

Cowans has flown a bit under the radar in
comparison to other high-performing juniors in the region due to
his size and a broken wrist that kept him off the ice for most of last season. Now
fully healed, Cowans’ stats
stand as a testament to his dedication both on and off the ice
toward becoming the best player possible.

The 17-year-old
spends countless hours hanging out around the rink, working on
strength and conditioning, and following a nutrition plan in order
to be more effective on the ice.

“He’s a
rink rat; he loves being in the rink and loves thinking about the
game of hockey,” Riley said. “He’s just one of
those kids that he thinks a lot about how to get there and he does
whatever it takes to get there. Hanging around the rink and
stickhandling a ball in the hallway or working on his footwork
before a game is one of those examples that he shows in terms of
doing it.”

Where Cowans is small
and shifty, Brown is tall and powerful. At 16 years old, Brown
is already 6-foot-2 and 183 pounds. He caught Groton’s
attention two years ago when
he played as a freshman on the
varsity roster for St. John’s of Shrewsbury. He arrived on the Groton campus last season to repeat his
freshman year in
order to play for the
Zebras, and he led a young and
battered Zebra lineup in scoring.

This
season, Brown continues
to be a go-to guy for Groton. He is tenacious in
getting to and winning battles for loose pucks, and he also
possesses a strong shot with a good release.

“He showed
signs of being a power forward last year as a ninth grader and even
more so this year,” Riley said. “He uses his size
pretty well for a sophomore. He’s a little lanky, but
he’s also very strong.

“His skating
is the one knock on him where he doesn’t have a fluid stride
necessarily so when his skating gets better as he gets older and
grows into his body, I think he’s going to be frighteningly
good.”

With the
Brown-Cowans duo leading the way, Groton is off to an 8-3-1
start this year, taking just 12 games to surpass last
season’s win total of seven
games. Groton’s season is also a memorable one already thanks
to the opportunity to play at
Fenway Park as part of the 2014 Frozen
Fenway series.

The Zebras lost to
St. Mark’s, 2-1, on the baseball diamond after St.
Mark’s scored two goals in less than two minutes in the third
period, but the experience was one the Groton players and coaches
will always cherish.

“We were
fortunate enough to get that game as a home game which meant we
were in the home dugout and the home batting cages and had access
to the Red Sox clubhouse,” Riley said. “It was fun. It
was enjoyable. We always love competing against St. Mark’s.
We never like losing to them but we can tip our hat to them because
they competed and played hard, and at the end of the day, the kids
had a terrific experience.”

Game of
the Week

Salisbury at
Kent, Saturday at 2:45 p.m.

The two top teams
in the region will take a step toward settling who the current best
in New England is when they face off on Saturday in what could be a
preview of Elite 8 action.

Prep Power
Rankings

Kent School
(11-1-1) – The Lions are riding an eight-game win streak and
have scored six or more goals in each of their last six
games.

Salisbury School
(9-0-3) – Third period woes haunted the Knights this week, as
Salisbury blew leads in the final period against Westminster and
Trinity-Pawling to settle for two ties.

Thayer Academy
(12-2-0) – The Tigers capped off a four-win week with a
hard-fought win over Cushing.